A goal of laundries is to maintain freshly laundered and pressed shirts in an unwrinkled condition until returned to the customer. However, a hanger supports only the shoulder portions of a shirt. As a result, the collar tends to sag causing the upper part of the front plackets to pucker and open and unsightly wrinkling down the front of the shirt.
Various techniques have been ineffectually used with a hangered shirt in an attempt to maintain a pressed appearance and avoid creases and wrinkles. For example, pins, clips, and staples have been attached to the collar of a shirt to prevent the shirt from opening or falling off a hanger. A drawback of such devices is that they can rust or leave holes in a shirt. Another drawback is that the devices do not support the collar in a position that precludes the formation of wrinkles, and do not overlap the sides of the front of the shirt.
A variety of collar supports have also been described. One such device involves a collar attachment adhesively attached along the neckband of a shirt under the collar and a lower portion adhesively attached to the upper portion of the front placket to support the collar attachment and hold the collar in place. Another device is made of a strip of flexible material formed into a cylindrical shape and hung on a hanger to support the collar of a shirt. Other cardboard pieces have been described for use as collar stays or shaping pieces.
Such devices do not adequately prevent wrinkling of the collar or the front portion of a hangered shirt. In addition, most known devices for supporting hangered shirt collars are too complicated to construct and use, and/or susceptible to easy dislodgment and not likely to stay in place or provide the necessary support to the shirt.
It would be desirable to develop a device for supporting the collar of a hangered shirt or other garment that overcomes such drawbacks.